The countdown to the return of NBC’s One Chicago dramas is officially underway! Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD will each return on Oct. 1, bringing One Chicago Wednesdays back into the mix with brand new seasons of the three beloved shows.
With the premieres inching closer and closer, NBC is finally beginning to roll out promotional materials for the upcoming seasons. We’ve gotten a new teaser for the shows (sans any new footage), and now NBC has released the first promotional art for the new seasons. While the new key art for the upcoming seasons of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD don’t offer up much in terms of spoilers for the seasons ahead, they do give confirmation on the returns of 21 characters across the three shows!
Starting with Chicago Med, the season 11 key art features returning cast members Steven Weber (Dean Archer), Jessy Schram (Hannah Asher), Luke Mitchell (Mitch Ripley), Sarah Ramos (Caitlin Lenox), Darren Barnet (John Frost), S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon Goodwin), and Oliver Platt (Daniel Charles). Notably missing from the key art is Marlyne Barrett (Maggie Lockwood), whose exit was only just confirmed before the release of the key art.
It’s unclear how Maggie will be written out of the show, but we do know that Barrett has taken a leave from the show with the hope being she’ll return at some point. This seems to indicate that the show will write Maggie off in a way that allows for her return.
Moving along to the key art for Chicago Fire season 14, we see eight of the show’s returning players featured front and center. Among those featured in the key art for the new season are Taylor Kinney (Kelly Severide), David Eigenberg (Christopher Herrmann), Joe Minoso (Joe Cruz), Christian Stolte (Randall “Mouch” McHolland), Miranda Rae Mayo (Stella Kidd), Hanako Greensmith (Violet Mikami), Jocelyn Hudon (Lyla Novak), and Dermot Mulroney (Dom Pascal).
There are three key actors missing from the key art, but this is connected to their departures heading into the season. We’re referring to Daniel Kyri (Darren Ritter), Jake Lockett (Sam Carver), and Michael Bradway (Jack Damon), who have exited the show. Lockett’s exit was set up in the season 13 finale, but we’re going to have to wait to see exactly how the writers craft Ritter and Damon’s exits.
Rounding out the key art is the art for Chicago PD season 13. There’s not much change to the Chicago PD ensemble this season with the art featuring returning stars Jason Beghe (Hank Voight), Marina Squerciati (Kim Burgess), Patrick John Flueger (Adam Ruzek), LaRoyce Hawkins (Kevin Atwater), Benjamin Levy Aguilar (Dante Torres), and Amy Morton (Trudy Platt).
Chicago PD season 13 will see more changes coming to the Intelligence Unit with Toya Turner (Kiana Cook) departing the show after just one season. Her exit will lead to the introduction of Arienne Mandi to the cast as the newest member of the team.
Interestingly, NBC opted not to include Mandi or Chicago Fire newcomer Brandon Larracuente in the key art for their respective shows. This isn’t unusual for the One Chicago shows, as we often see the new cast members left off the key art for the season, and it’s a trend that has continued this year. We’ve gotten some behind-the-scenes shots of the pair already, but we’ll have to wait for the first episodic photos to arrive to get our official first looks at the characters, it seems.